Wednesday, 16 September 2015

More Lyon

After a pretty disturbed night due to much rattling
and banging from the wind outside, we ventured out and started our
wandering ‘down the hill’ from Croix-Rousse to the main part of the city. It
was a reasonably circuitous route, as we explored alley-ways, parks, murals, old buildings, artists studios and
even another Roman amphitheatre! This is really an interesting part of the city. We even tried to find some of the Traboules, which are the passages that were built between houses to enable the silk workers to take the silk from the factories to the river for transport without getting wet. These passages which are behind closed doors were also very important for the Resistance during WWWII as they hid from the Nazi's. These days they are behind locked doors and we discovered that the only way we were going to be able to get inside was by guided tour...unfortunately we discovered this too late.

So forgetting the Traboules, we instead focused on some of the amazing murals that have been painted. Many of them cover the one or more sides of multi-story buildings. They are really great to see and have put Lyon on the world map as far as murals go.

After our last mural, we decided to stop for lunch. We found a nice looking cafe/restaurant that looked reasonably popular and we ordered the 'Menu du Jour'...ie meal of the day! The food was excellent, entre of sardines (really lovely),main of bream and dessert of chocolate fondant (the best ever!). Fed and watered, we were ready to go again.

Today was incredibly windy, and while you did not notice it in the laneways, you certainly did in the squares. In one of the main squares that we crossed, tables and chairs were being blowed all over the place. According to the news this evening, quite a bit of damage has been done around the place. As well, it turned into quite a warm day. Previously we had had days of around 20 -22'c, but it was up around the 27'C mark today.

Our next stop was a silk specialty shop, where a little bit of purchasing occurred. Then wandering past one of the many optical shops, we both bought a pair of frames (we will leave the lenses to be done when we are back in Melbourne). Everyone in Lyon wears funky glasses, so we just had to join the trend.

We then wandered through another shopping area, but this time just window shopped until we got to the Textiles and Decorative Arts Museum. The Textiles section was really fabulous with many fabrics, embroideries, tapestries, clothes, religious vestments from 11th Century to 19th Century were on display. Only problem was that the place was really hot and stuffy and after a while we both started to feel dizzy...so we had to leave and get some fresh air. A bit of a shame really that it was such a rushed trip.

Then it was the train back home, a final visit to our local Boulangerie (for baguette) and Fromagerie (for some more delicious cheeses). Tonights dinner finished off what we had left in our fridge. Then it was time to pack up as we leave tomorrow.